The Ontological Constraints Limiting Access to Leadership: What You Must Take Away to Create Access to Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership

Abstract:     
This paper is the (pre-course) introduction document to an experimental leadership course developed by the authors and taught at the U. of Rochester Simon School of Business and the US Air Force Academy, and will be taught in June 2009 at the Erasmus Academie in Rotterdam. The title of the course is: "Being A Leader and The Effective Exercise Of Leadership: An Ontological Model". The intention of the course is to leave the participants actually being leaders and exercising leadership effectively, and for the course to contribute to creating a new science of leadership. The course is founded on what we term an ontological model of human nature.

The following paragraph describes this course for someone who has no knowledge of what this material is about.

This Leadership course is different from others you may know of or have experienced. This course is based on the proposition that within everyone there is a natural latent leadership ability. Rather than teaching you "leadership strategies" or being a "how to guide", this course will help you identify and remove obstacles that keep you from accessing your innate leadership talent. Some obstacles to great leadership are inherent in and shared by all people-- a consequence of the way our brains work. And some obstacles are specific to each individual-- the result of individual history and experience. This course works to make you aware of these obstacles, and allows you to remove them and access your natural capacity for leadership

More on the Course

By ontological we mean the following: If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be a bird, or wondered what it is like to be your dog, or to be a person of the opposite gender, or what it is like to be some particular friend of yours, you were in an ontological inquiry. You would also be in an ontological inquiry if you asked: What is it like to be a human being, or what is it like to be a leader?

Ontology as a general subject is concerned with the being of anything. However, here we are concerned with the ontology of human beings, and specifically with the ontology of leader and leadership. That is, we are concerned with the nature and function of being for human beings, and specifically with the nature and function of being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership.

For a narrower and therefore easier example of being, we can talk about being angry, or being antisocial, or being a person of character. We could examine these ways of being from the comfort of our somewhat familiar perspectives on human beings from the science of psychology, neuroscience, or genetics.

While less familiar for us and therefore perhaps at first uncomfortable, it is also possible to examine any of these ways of being from an ontological perspective. Here we would be examining the being aspect of being angry, or being antisocial, or being a person of character. (Webster's Dictionary (1998) defines being as "fundamental or essential nature".) From this perspective we clearly see that when we are being angry, we are likely to act in anger. Likewise for being antisocial, or being a person of character. From the ontological perspective it is clear that being constrains and shapes behavior.

The ontological perspective is particularly powerful when dealing with the being of being a leader, and the effective exercise of leadership. Like acting in anger when we are being angry, or acting with ease if we are being at ease, or acting with confidence when we are being confident, if we master the being of being a leader, we are likely to act as a leader and exercise leadership effectively. And, this course is about being a leader, and acting effectively in exercising leadership as a natural consequence of being a leader.

An epistemological mastery of a subject leaves you knowing. An ontological mastery of a subject leaves you being. Once again, this course is about access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership.

Effective leadership does not come from mere knowledge about what leaders do, or trying to emulate the characteristics or styles of noteworthy leaders, or from trying to remember and follow the steps, tips or techniques from books on leadership, and certainly not from merely being in a leadership position, or position of authority. If you are not being a leader, and you try to act like a leader, you are likely to fail. That's called being inauthentic, and inauthenticity (pretending to be a leader) is deadly in the attempt to exercise leadership.

It is obvious that to be effective in dealing with a leadership challenge one must be able to accurately perceive that challenge, and then act effectively in dealing with the challenge. However, neuroscience tells us that at least 80% of what we perceive is what our brain sees (comes from our memory), not what our eyes see. And, the 80% of our perception that comes from our memory is constrained and shaped by our network of ideas, beliefs, social and cultural embedded-ness, and taken-for-granted assumptions. Moreover, regardless of the accuracy of our perceptions, when in our attempt to deal with a leadership challenge there is a perceived threat to our identity, our freedom to act is high jacked by stimulus-response behavior, or what is often called a knee-jerk reaction. We term this limiting and shaping imposed on our perceptions and actions, Ontological Constraints.

The ontological approach to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership opens up the possibility of eliminating many of these Ontological Constraints, including those most critical to being effective as a leader. Much of this course is devoted to providing participants with that opportunity.

The Underlying Theory of this Course: Part I

• Given that our way of being and our actions are a correlate of the way in which the circumstances we are dealing with occur (show up) for us, and
• Given that the way the circumstances occur for us is limited and shaped by our Ontological Constraints, our being and actions when being a leader are not correlated with what is actually there, but rather with some distorted version of what is there, and
• Given that these Ontological Constraints limit and shape our opportunity set for being and action, the most effective way of being and acting when being a leader is often unavailable to us.
• Thus, gaining access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership requires that we loosen the grip of these debilitating Ontological Constraints, or to put it more simply,
• We must take away what is for each of us individually in the way of our being a leader and exercising leadership effectively.
• This accomplished, one only needs to distinguish being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership in a way that provides access to the natural expression of being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership.

The Underlying Theory of this Course: Part II

• We distinguish Leader and Leadership in a way that pierces through their complexity and clarifies their multidimensionality, and do so in a way that leaves participants with a natural access to being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership.
• We produce this natural access by transforming participants’ Frame of Reference (mindset) for Leader and Leadership through the use of a unique contextual framework (structure for analysis) constituted by the following four distinct aspects of (or perspectives on) Leader and Leadership.
• We distinguish Leader and Leadership as:
o A Linguistic Abstraction
o A Phenomenon
o A Concept
o A Term

Our Promise:

You will have experienced whatever personal transformation is required for you to leave the course being who you need to be to be a leader, and with what it takes to exercise leadership effectively. In other words, you will be a leader.

Keywords: Leadership, Ontology, worldview, frames of reference, ontological constraints, functional constraints, perceptual constraints

Working Paper Series